Over the past year, the Pixel Watch has been heavily leaked. Google finally revealed full details of its first-ever smartwatch, and unsurprisingly there weren’t many surprises, but the fact that Google is actually launching a smartwatch marks a new chapter for Android wearables. While the tech giant was once an indifferent bystander to wearables, it’s now an active participant.
The design of the $349.99 ($399.99 for the Honeycomb version) Pixel Watch is not something we haven’t seen before at Google I/O or in leaked renders. It’s basically what the Apple Watch looked like when it had a round display, complete with a digital crown and side buttons. That said, the official size of the Pixel Watch is much smaller than other high-end smartwatches launching this fall. The case is compact 41mm and relatively thin at 12.3mm. For a stainless steel watch, it’s also light at 32 grams, minus the strap. That puts it closer to the entry-level Galaxy Watch 5 and Apple Watch Series 8 than to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro or Apple Watch Ultra.
The Pixel Watch won’t have an impressive battery life
The smaller size is good news for people with petite wrists, but it also means the Pixel Watch won’t have the most impressive battery life. It has a 294mAh battery that will last an estimated 24 hours on a single charge. That’s not terrible for a smartwatch that emphasizes intelligence over fitness, but it’s still a far cry from the roughly two days of the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro and Ultra.
Google spokesman Andrea Holin said that estimate was arrived at with the always-on display turned off: 240 notifications; 280-time checks; 50 minutes of tethered navigation; 45 minutes of working out while tracking location via GPS over an LTE connection and playing on locally stored YouTube music; and five minutes of LTE calls.
Battery life always depends heavily on personal use, and to take the pressure off, Google has added fast charging to the watch via a USB-C cable. You get a 50% charge in half an hour, while a full charge takes about 80 minutes.
In terms of durability, while it has 5 ATM water resistance and the case is stainless steel, its display only has Corning Gorilla 5 glass. Since it is a domed display, the glass may be stressed from all angles in daily use, which may pose some easy damage issues.
As for the processing power, the rumors were confirmed to be true. Google confirmed that the watch runs on Samsung’s previous generation Exynos 9110 chip, which was last used in the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3. However, the Pixel Watch has an additional Cortex M33 co-processor to optimize battery life. This is the same approach Qualcomm has taken with its wearable chips, which has met with varying degrees of success. Google has also upped the memory to 2GB, which has not been seen on Android smartwatches yet.
The Pixel Watch has Bluetooth 5.0, LTE, Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity for contactless payments, a compass, built-in GPS, an altimeter, a SpO2 sensor, a heart rate sensor, a “multi-purpose” electrical sensor, and motion sensors such as an accelerometer and gyroscope, a built-in microphone and speaker for Google Assistant and calls. Like Samsung and Apple, Google is adding safety features such as emergency help, international emergency calling, and fall detection, which will be updated later this winter.
The Pixel Watch runs on Wear OS 3.5, which has a completely different user interface than what Samsung has on its Wear OS watches. You can swipe left and right to switch between feature lists, swipe up to access notifications, and swipe down to quickly switch between settings. Google’s version of Wear OS 3 also includes a watch interface unique to the Pixel Watch as well as custom complications.
The good news is that none of the features of the Pixel Watch will be exclusive to Pixel phones. That’s a clear difference from Samsung’s Galaxy Watch, which has many important features that require owning a Samsung smartphone.
The watch will also be more obviously integrated with Google’s services. This includes Google Wallet for contactless payments, Google Maps for navigation, and Calendar and Gmail notifications. It will also feature Find My Device, Google Assistant and the Google Home app for smart home control. In terms of music, Google is also giving each Pixel Watch three months of YouTube Music Premium.
Meanwhile, all health features will be provided by Fitbit. Each watch also comes with a six-month Fitbit Premium membership, which includes access to guided workouts, advanced sleep tracking, daily readiness scores and meditation classes.
While Google recently announced that Fitbit users will need to sign in with their Google accounts in the future, the company said it will continue to keep Fitbit health and wellness data separate from Google advertising data, as required by global regulators.
It’s too early to say if the Pixel Watch will be a success
It’s still too early to say if the Pixel Watch will be a success. Much will depend on the chip, battery life, and whether its version of Wear OS 3 is good enough, among other things. Still, on paper, the Pixel Watch appears to be the first attempt to change Google’s wearables narrative, even if it still has a long way to go to catch up with Apple in the short term.
The Pixel Watch is available for pre-order starting today in black, silver and gold. The standard version is priced at $349.99, while the mobile version is $399.99. The watch is available for pre-order starting today (Oct. 6) and is expected to be listed on Oct. 13.
